Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 November 2021
81. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Finance his plans to amend the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009 to complement the recently published Housing for All plan to deliver more affordable and social housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54416/21]
View answerNAMA was established in December 2009 as part of the State’s response to the 2008 banking crisis with a very specific legal mandate, which was approved by the European Commission in 2010, to deal expeditiously with its acquired loan portfolio and to extract best value from that portfolio. NAMA has been successful in achieving this mandate and has now entered into the final phase of its work.
Within the context of its overriding commercial mandate, NAMA has already made a significant contribution to social housing. The agency continuously reviews the assets of its debtors and receivers to establish if vacant and available residential properties securing their loans could potentially be made available for social housing. In this context, NAMA engages with the Housing Agency and the Department of Housing in order to facilitate the delivery of social housing from its secured portfolio.
To date, NAMA has delivered over 2,640 homes from its secured portfolio for social housing. These figures exclude social housing delivered on NAMA-funded residential developments in compliance with Part V planning obligations.
As part of its social housing programme, in 2012, NAMA established National Asset Residential Property Services DAC (NARPS) as a means of expediting the delivery of social housing. NARPS operated by purchasing suitable houses and apartments from NAMA debtors and receivers and leased them to Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies. Many of the properties acquired by NARPS had been incomplete vacant units in unfinished housing estates. The purchase of the properties by NARPS has often had the effect of triggering a wider programme of completion and remediation for these estates.
1,370 social housing units have been delivered via NARPS. It is intended that this entity and its social housing units will be transferred to the Land Development Agency as part of the Housing for All plan.
It is important that NAMA’s core role is preserved and that it completes its work in line with its original mandate. NAMA has made considerable progress toward the achievement of its objectives and a key part of NAMA's remaining mandate will be to continue to make a significant contribution to the supply of housing within the State where it is in a position to do so.
Accordingly, at this late stage in NAMA’s lifecycle, it is not my intention to amend its legislation.
